Philosophical approaches to communication

Abstract

The current interest in communication studies is understandable given the proliferation of communication technologies that are part and parcel of today‘s world. However, while this interest tends to focus on the media applications of communication technologies, the concept of communication that underlies these technologies remains unexamined. The purpose of this text is to provide an overview of the different aspects that are entailed by the concept of communication. The early theories of communication adopted a relatively simple model to explain the process of communication. Known as the process or linear model of communication, it assumed a sender who transmitted a message to a receiver; in a slightly more complex version of this model, the sender encoded a message that was transmitted to the receiver who in turn decoded it to understand the message. Understanding the message entailed that the receiver would be able to understand what the speaker intended to mean when he/she communicated his/her message. Although popular, this model of communication is too simple as it fails to take into account the situation within which communication takes place: communication is not an abstract activity dislocated from a context of conventions, rules or a way of life.